Equity in planetary health education initiatives
Authors: Ana Bonell, Jainaba Badjie, Lamin B Faal, Sariba Jammeh, Zakari Ali, Muhammed Hydara, Adesina Davies, Momodu Faal, Aliyu Nuhu Ahmed, William Hand, Andrew M Prentice, Kris A Murray, Pauline Scheelbeek
Journal: The Lancet Planetary Health (2023)

The effects of climate change are being experienced around the world and should urgently be addressed. Learning from and engaging with young people is crucial for the codevelopment of suitable and effective interventions, and to equip the next generations with the necessary skills to achieve environmental sustainability and increase climate change resilience.1Bangay C Blum N Education responses to climate change and quality: two parts of the same agenda?.Int J Educ Dev. 2010; 30: 359-368Crossref Scopus (94) Google Scholar Although teaching the science and skills needed for a healthy future are important, there is growing recognition that the complexity and interconnectedness of climate change, health, sustainability, resilience, and socioeconomic drivers require transformative educational methods.2Leal Filho W Sima M Sharifi A et al.Handling climate change education at universities: an overview.Environ Sci Eur. 2021; 33: 109Crossref PubMed Scopus (33) Google Scholar In addition, equity, justice, ethical, and human rights issues related to climate change can benefit from interactive educational methodology and codeveloped solutions.3Chapman AR Ahmed AK Climate justice, humans rights, and the case for reparations.Health Hum Rights. 2021; 23: 81-94PubMed Google Scholar We present an example of youth involvement, colearning, and cocreation of educational material. In May, 2021, the Climate Change Solutions Festival took place in The Gambia.4Bonell A Badjie J Jammeh S et al.Climate change mitigation and adaption options in the local environment: climate change solutions festival. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London2022Google Scholar, 5Bonell A Badjie J Jammeh S et al.Grassroots and youth-led climate solutions from the gambia.Front Public Health. 2022; 10784915Crossref Scopus (1) Google Scholar The festival involved the use and application of innovative educational methods, with colearning, equity, and respect as core values. The project was run by the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in collaboration with the Gambian Ministry of Education. The team jointly decided on the key objectives, scope, student ages, and the logistical support available. We approached students aged 16–18 years in 50 schools across The Gambia to participate in a competition to develop an interactive stall (figure)4Bonell A Badjie J Jammeh S et al.Climate change mitigation and adaption options in the local environment: climate change solutions festival. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London2022Google Scholar to present their local solutions to adapt to or mitigate the effects of climate change or environmental degradation. 11 schools were selected, on the basis of relevance, innovation, and engagement of their proposed solutions, to present their ideas at the festival. Ten non-governmental organisations (NGOs) linked to conservation and environmental protection were also invited to participate and present their (professional) solutions and promote colearning with students. Over 2 days, 600 schoolchildren attended the festival. Both days involved peer-to-peer learning with interactive experiments, action sketches, and a theatre play covering several climate change solutions. We highlight the successes and pitfalls of the festival. From the beginning, we aimed to form equal partnerships between government departments, academia, and NGOs. In practice, the project was predominantly led by the academic partners. There were several reasons why this occurred. First, the relatively short timeframe for festival organisation placed a time constraint on collaborator contributions. Second, a small budget affected accessibility and scope. Third, the budget holder being the academic institution introduced an imbalance in power. We have identified three key leverage points on how partnerships could be strengthened in future editions of the festival and similar colearning activities.6Nakanjako D Kendall D Sewankambo NK et al.Building and sustaining effective partnerships for training the next generation of global health leaders.Ann Glob Health. 2021; 87: 66Crossref PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar First, improving planning with longer lead-in time, communication, and transparency between all partners with a commitment to investing time to build relationships and trust. Second, discussing and agreeing on shared goals for any future programmes. Third, evaluating (and making potential adjustments) of the partnership during the collaboration. Students who attended the festival and presented their ideas showed strong enthusiasm for further roll-out of local solutions to tackle specific environmental and climate change problems. The festival structure and layout allowed networking between students, academics, NGOs, and government stakeholders; however, no specific strategy was in place to encourage professionals to enact upon students' solutions. Although the long-term effects of the festival cannot be assessed at this stage, the passion, enthusiasm, and ingenuity of the students suggests that there will be no shortage of potential climate leaders in the future. Despite this positive engagement, we felt there was an unequal balance between climate change adaptation solutions and climate justice, with the latter being underrepresented at the festival. Although a focus on adaptation is imperative (given how climate change is already affecting this setting),7Amuzu J Jallow BP Kabo-Bah AT Yaffa S The climate change vulnerability and risk management matrix for the coastal zone of The Gambia.Hydrology. 2018; 5: 14Crossref Scopus (18) Google Scholar not representing climate justice might have hindered an important avenue to enact change.8NatureYoung people will be key to climate justice at COP26.Nature. 2021; 598: 386Crossref PubMed Scopus (1) Google Scholar Without addressing the global inequality in those responsible for climate change versus those most affected by it reduces the likelihood of leveraging global action.9Van Houtan KS Tanaka KR Gagné TO Becker SL The geographic disparity of historical greenhouse emissions and projected climate change.Sci Adv. 2021; 7eabe4342Crossref PubMed Scopus (15) Google Scholar To overcome this in future editions, a more proactive approach could be taken. For instance, by inviting NGOs with a climate justice focus; running workshops in schools on different aspects of climate adaptation and justice; or by encouraging student projects that address climate equity or justice. Education and colearning are pivotal in addressing the climate crisis. Young people are strong supporters of action to change our current global trajectory on climate change, and it is time their voices are heeded by those in power. We declare no competing interests. KAM and PS are joint last authors. Education for planetary healthMaking change is often difficult, from individuals seeking healthier lifestyles, start-up companies struggling to cope with rapid growth, to national and international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and halt biodiversity loss there is a learning journey. Even in the simplest case of individuals following an established syllabus learning is nontrivial, requiriang time, energy, self-awareness, and discipline. When learning is scaled up to the level of organisations the challenges are much greater because there is usually no established learning pathway to follow and a whole suite of legal, procedural, and cultural factors create organisational inertia that is resistant to change. Full-Text PDF Open Access